Num
21:4-9
Easter
6
5/5/24
About
a month ago, all eyes were fixed on one place. It was the solar eclipse, and
during that time most everyone stopped for at least a few minutes and gazed up
at the sun. As we know, people came into our area from all over just to see it.
We
had several Lutheran groups who set up on our parking lot in order to watch the
eclipse. One group came here from Iowa.
Several set up special telescopes and video equipment so that they would
view the entire eclipse and take pictures of it.
In
our Old Testament lesson this morning, we find that all eyes are also fixed on
one place. Yet rather than looking for
entertainment and enjoyment, they are looking in order to be rescued and
delivered from death. They are looking
at the means to which God has attached his promise.
Our
text begins by saying: “From Mount
Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of
Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.” In the exodus, God had rescued Israel from
slavery in Egypt. He had brought them to
Mt. Sinai and had taken them into a covenant with himself. He had declared that they were his treasured
possession. They were a holy nation to
him.
Yahweh had promised to give them the
land of Canaan – the land he had promised Abraham that he would give to his
offspring. Israel had arrived at Canaan,
but then things had gone all wrong.
Spies sent into the land to do reconnaissance reported that it was a
fertile and wonderful place – a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet they also said that the people who lived
there were strong, and lived in large fortified cities. Most of the spies gave the impression that
Israel could not take it.
Israel rebelled. They refused to enter
the promised land. Only through Moses’
intercession did God spare the nation.
Yet he said their punishment would be that the nation would wander in
the wilderness for forty years. Those
who were twenty years and older would never enter the land. They would die in
the wilderness. Instead, their children
were the ones who would possess the land.
Our text says, “And the people became
impatient on the way.” Literally, the Hebrew says that “the spirit of the
people” became impatient. Many of them
were on a journey to nowhere. They were
going to die in the wilderness and never see the promised land. They had nothing before them except the
journey that was going to stretch on for years.
We learn in our text: “And the
people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water,
and we loathe this worthless food.’”
In their impatience, the people turned against God and his
representative, Moses. They raised the
accusation that God had brought them out of Egypt only to die in the
wilderness. They complained that there
was no food and water, and they added that they loathed the food God was giving
them.
The people’s statement ignored how God
had given them water. Twice God had used
Moses to bring water from a rock. In fact, the second occurrence had just taken
place in the previous chapter! God could
be trusted to provide water. He had in the past. He would in the future. Immediately after our text, Yahweh brings the
people to a well and tells Moses, “Gather the people together, so that I
may give them water.”
The Israelites said they had no
food. But that was not true. The reality was that they weren’t satisfied
with the food that God was providing to them. He was giving them quail for meat. And since
the exodus, he had provided them with manna.
He had given them bread from heaven. Yet they said, “we loathe this
worthless food.”
Israel’s experience should not sound
unfamiliar. Like Israel, we too are on a
journey. We are on the journey of
life. And like Israel, we too become
impatient on the way. We grow tired of
the journey as we encounter difficulties and challenges. In particular, we are prone to focus on what
God is not providing to us. We ignore and overlook the blessings that he
does give.
We want a bigger house and a better
car. We want more and better vacations.
We want to be able do those extra things without having to worry about our
budget. And we look around and see that other
people have these things. After all,
it’s plastered before us every day on Facebook and Instagram. We covet what they have, and we blame God for
not treating us better.
Israel had spoken against Yahweh. And
so in response, God punished the people for their sin by sending fiery serpents
among them. They bit the people, and
many of the people died. Yahweh’s action
confronted the people. And so they came
to Moses and said, “We
have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to
the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.”
Moses prayed for the people. And Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a fiery
serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it,
shall live.” God told Moses to make a
serpent and set it on a pole. He attached his promise to this - that anyone who
looked at it would be spared. So Moses
made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. As God had promised, if a
serpent bit anyone, that individual looked at the bronze serpent and lived. The people had faith in God’s promise that he
had attached to the bronze serpent on the pole.
St. Paul told the Romans, “For whatever was written in
former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and
through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” This text about the bronze serpent on the
pole was written for our instruction and encouragement. It provides us with a type – something in the
Old Testament that points forward to what God has done for us in the New
Testament.
This text is easy to interpret,
because Jesus has already done the work for us.
He told Nicodemus, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who
descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life.”
The Son of God descended from heaven in the incarnation in
order to save us. Like the Israelites in
our text, our sins deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment. They deserve God’s judgment. But Jesus Christ was lifted upon on the cross
in order to free us from sin. The Lord
Jesus has redeemed us through his death.
Sin brings death.
But in winning forgiveness for us, death was not the end. On Easter, God raised Jesus from the dead. God has given us victory over both sin and
death through his Son. And then, as we
will celebrate on Thursday, God exalted Jesus Christ as he ascended into
heaven.
Now we receive forgiveness and life by looking at Jesus in
faith. Jesus said, “For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should
have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” We trust and believe in the crucified and
risen Lord.
Jesus has ascended. Yet he continues to meet us where we are. Just as God attached his promise to the
serpent on the pole, so now our Lord attaches his promise to water, and bread
and wine. He gives us these means that
are located in our midst by which he applies his saving work to us.
Through water poured on your body in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit you have shared
in Jesus’ saving death. Paul told the Romans, “Do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death?” By faith in God’s work of
baptism you now have the forgiveness that Jesus won for us you the cross. And you also have the promise that you will
share in Jesus’ resurrection. Paul tells us about baptism: “For if we have
been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united
with him in a resurrection like his.”
Christ has attached his promise to the bread and wine in
the Sacrament of the Altar. He has said,
“This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you.” Through these words, Jesus gives us what he
says. He provides his true body offered
on the cross for us. He gives his true
blood shed in death for us. By faith in
Christ’s promise we receive the blessing of forgiveness. Jesus comes to us here
and now as he is present in his body and blood.
Jesus gives us bread from heaven in the Sacrament. He gives us food for the new man that
sustains us in our journey, and gives us hope.
Like the Israelites, we are on a journey in life. But unlike those in our text who were twenty
years and older, our journey is not a journey to nowhere. Instead, it is a pilgrimage that leads to a
destination.
Our Lord Jesus has already shown us the destination in his
resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection is the
beginning of the resurrection of the Last Day.
He is the firstfruits of our resurrection. Because he has risen with a
body transformed so that it can never die again, so will we. Our Lord will return in glory on the Last
Day. He will raise us up and transform
this creation so that it is very good once again. That is where our journey is taking us. That
is the hope we have before us because of what Jesus has done.
In the water of baptism we have been made a new creation in
Christ. We are children of God who
receive the forgives of sins through faith.
And while we are on this journey we seek to walk in faith.
So give thanks
to God for the blessings that you have received. Do you have food today? Do you have clean
water? Do you have clothing? Do you have
a roof over your head? Give thanks for these things, and don’t take them for
granted. God is providing you with daily
bread. He is giving you what you need to
support your body and life.
Recognize that
his blessings go so far beyond just the basic necessities of life. Don’t take those things for granted. Don’t
let the desire of greed govern your life as you are ruled by an endless quest
for more and better.
Instead, see God’s blessings as the
means he has given by which you can bless others. God has loved you in Christ. Use his blessings in order to help those
around you. John said, “By this we know love, that he laid down
his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if
anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his
heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let
us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
In our text
today, God attaches his promise of rescue to the serpent on the pole. The serpent on the pole directs us to what he
has done in Jesus Christ. Jesus was
lifted upon on the cross to redeem us, and then he was raised from the dead to
give us life. Now he has attached his
promise to the Sacraments as he gives us forgiveness and sustains us as his
people during our journey of life. We
journey in hope as we keep our eyes set on the risen Lord.
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